Page 9 of Xarius (Shunned Mages #1)

Niam

My head was pounding, and I groaned at the bright light behind my eyelids.

Gently prying them open, I took in my current situation.

I was lying in a van, but not my van. This one was all pretty and decorated inside.

With wood panels on the sides and… was that my fairy lights on the ceiling?

I turned my throbbing head and saw my books on some shelves that had elastic on them to keep them in place while driving.

The back doors opened and there he was, my stalker. Everything came back to me. I backed further into the van, feeling like now was the part where I got killed. Before I could panic further, he held his hands up and rushed out, “I’m a shunned mage, too.”

That had my attention. “What?” I asked, wanting the words to be true. Another one like me?

“I’m the first shunned mage,” he replied, giving me a kind smile.

“You’re Leah’s son?” I asked, sitting up and allowing myself to hope I wasn’t getting killed after all.

“I am,” he nodded. “Can I come in? I don’t want to scare you, I just need to talk to you.”

“Well, it’s your van,” I said, not caring I was being sarcastic. He had kidnapped me after all.

He smiled brighter and sat down. He had the most gorgeous light blue eyes. I winced. “Was that me?” I pointed to his nose.

He nodded. “Don’t worry, I found it extremely sexy you were able to protect yourself.” His nose had dried blood around it and I couldn’t tell if it was broken or not.

“Uh, um, cool.” Was he into me? Or teasing me? Did he need anything from me? “What time is it?” The door was open, letting me peek outside and see the many trees and bright sunlight.

“Just after eight,” he replied .

“Jerry!” I said, getting ready to move outside but was hit with a burst of nausea. “He’ll worry,” I said, holding my head as the throbbing calmed down.

“I’ll call the gas station,” he said, likely knowing who Jerry was from his obsessive stalking. He used his phone to find the number easily. “Hi, I’m calling on behalf of… Wait, what’s your name?” he asked, holding the phone to his chest as he waited for my response.

“Niam,” I replied, hoping Jerry hadn’t been too worried.

“I have Niam here with me,” he said. I could hear Jerry on the other side, sounding relieved.

“Well, I found him unconscious in the parking lot, a big bruise on his head and drove him to the hospital. I’ll bring him back in a little bit.

” They shared a few more words and then they hung up.

“Jerry told me to apologize for him. He didn’t like leaving you there each night alone, but he’s glad you’re okay. ”

“Well, I wouldn’t have been knocked out if you hadn’t chased me,” I reminded him.

He gave me a guilty smile. “You kept running away from me, what else was I supposed to do?”

“Gee, I don’t know, maybe leave a written note? ”

“Huh, that would’ve been a great idea actually. But I couldn’t tell you I was a shunned mage in the note, and I doubt you’d want to talk to me if you saw a note with “ call me ” on it.”

I had to give him that. “Fine, your kidnapping was valid. Now can we please move on to the part where you tell me why you needed to talk to me?” I figured it was because we were both shunned from our world, and I would like a friend I could share that with.

He must’ve been lonely here all these years without anyone to talk to about our home world, or just magic in general.

He leaned back against the side and looked deep in thought. His teeth pulled on his bottom lip, making it impossible not to look at it. I wanted to straddle his lap and take over the biting.

Where the hell had that come from?!

I needed to reign myself in a bit. I might’ve truly hurt my head. Then I felt mortified. I’d knocked myself out against a tree. This would be one of those things that would keep me up at night for the rest of my life.

“I was given a task before being shunned,” he began.

I raised a brow. This was interesting . “My mothers had a suspicion of why I was being shunned, and they told me more mages would follow. In old legends of our world, the most powerful mages were born without magic and couldn’t reach it without their soulmatch.

” I snorted. Fairytales had always been just that, fairytales .

He stopped talking and looked over at me. “You haven’t even heard the rest yet.”

I rolled my eyes. “If it sounds too good to be true, it likely is. We don’t have magic and we need to just accept that and make the best life we can for ourselves here.”

He shook his head and looked almost hurt that I wasn’t as into the old legends as he apparently was.

Maybe he wasn’t doing well here, hoping someday to get back to our old world.

Maybe he had friends, a loving family? But the fact his mom, Leah, had been in on his banishment didn’t bode well for his home situation.

I hated my parents for their treatment of me, but at least mine weren’t the ones who had kicked me through the portal.

“I was given this.” He held up a locket that was shining so brightly my head was aching from the impact. “I was given it to find my soulmatch,” he explained.

I closed my eyes against the brightness and sighed. “And let me guess, you need me to help you find them on this heroic quest? ”

“No,” he said, surprising me. I looked over at him, trying to ignore the light. He looked me straight in the eyes, a vulnerable look on his face. “ You are my soulmatch.”